But in her apoftate and papal state, her policy was altogether reverfed. She now conceived, and not without reafon, that a power and influence over the understandings and confciences of men would be more fubfervient and ufeful to her ambitious defigns than a mere authority' over their bodies because in the former inftance their obedience· would be voluntary and zealous; and in the latter, involuntary and refractory, and only to be fecured by unceasing coercion and expence. Befides, the civil power of Rome was become fo diminished and weak, as to leave her without hope of increasing her political strength, by the conqueft of other nations. Hence we find, that immediately after her religious head was conftituted univerfal Bifhop or Pope, he established his idolatry in the heathen pantheon at Rome, in the year 606, and from that æra exerted all his cunning, art, fraud, and falfe doctrines, to feduce and enflave the understanding and confciences of the kings, who had before conquered, and then poffeffed, the weftern part of the territory of the Roman empire, into papal idolatry, and the fuccefs was rapid and wonderful! Here then we must look for the ten horns" among the kingdoms thus converted; and we find,-1. Britain, now Great Britain2. France, formerly Gaul-3. Spain 4. Portugal 5. Holland, formerly Batavia-6. Germany-7. -7. Switzerland.-8. Pruffia-9. Sardinia-10. Naples.

Thefe kingdoms and ftates have worn, in a peculiar manner, all the prophetic marks of the ten horns." They have rifen out of, and now occupy the weffern, or third and chief part of the fourth beaft, in which Rome, the capital of its dominions, has ever been fituated. They have rifen out of its religious head, in its papal ftate, and completely acted the characters of its horns in

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an implicit obedience to its will for, from the time of their converfion to papal idolatry, they believed in, and depended on, the wifdom and infallibility of the church of Rome. They looked up to the ruling Pope for his indulgencies and licences to commit crimes, and for pardon for those they had committed without his leave; and alfo for their release from the pains of purgatory; nay, even for their eternal falvation. In return for thefe falfe and imaginary bleffings, they have blindly yielded up, at his command, the aid of their civil power, and their wealth, to pamper his ambition; to feduce the church of Chrift from the pure word of God, and to deftroy thofe whom he could not feduce. In fhort, as the horns of a beaft is dependent upon its will, they were dependent upon the pleasure of the Pope. They were, now his "ten horns," horns of his ecclefiaftical head; and in this abject ftate of captivity fome of them have remained to this day, although others caft off the difgraceful yoke at the time of the Reformation.

In applying the "ten horns" to the kingdoms and states before mentioned, I am well aware that I differ from men, the moft pious, and most learned of all, that have ever commented upon this prophecy. I have done it with regret, and not without fear of mistake. But the great difagree ment in their opinions, with the unftable, argu ments upon which they are founded, have encouraged me to examine the principles of their feveral theories, and thus to offer to the candid confideration of the reader a new one. It will enable him to judge on which fide the truth preponderates, or perhaps, if I am alfo miftaken, affift him in difco vering a better interpretation himself.

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After having thus prepared the way, I fhall endeavour to convince him of the errors of those truly great men, by a brief ftate of facts grounded upon folid argument. I obferve then, that in the fourth and fifth centuries, the weftern part of the Roman empire became fubject to royal conquerors, who, after fome time, happened to amount to ten in number; but owing to the uncertainty of fuch military enterprizes, this number fluctuated; and yet the different commentators I allude to, felecting from hiftory the different periods in which the western empire had been poffeffed by den kings, have conceived that they were the prototypes of the "ten horns" in the chapter before us. Attending to the exact number only, however they have differed in respect to the kings themselves; never taking it into confideration, that, according to the evident fenfe of the text, they were not only to rife out of the head of the Roman beaft, but to belong to him, to be fubject to his power and influence; and therefore they have feverally fixed upon lifts of kings, the very reverfe of the prophetic description: kingdoms, which for the moft part rofe during the Chriftian fiate of Rome, and before Papal Rome exifted, and had never been converted to her fuperftition; and therefore could not arife out of her head, nor be her horns. They were kingdoms, in fhort, fome of which had perifhed before Rome became papal; and others foon after, over which The never had influence.

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Having thus bewildered themselves in fearching for the prototypes of the " ten horns," where they were not to be found, and taken for granted, that no wicked power was to rife in the world except the Pope, they have conftituted: the prototype of the Little Horn, and believed they had found

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the ten horns among his profelyted kings. But paffing over the opinions of Mr. Mede, Sir Ifaac Newton, and others, which Bishop Newton has clearly proved to be erroneous, let us examine that to which he has given his sanction.

The bishop begins his scheme with afferting. that the exarchate of Ravenna is one of the three horns which were "pluckt up by the roots" by the Pope, the "Little Horn." To fupport this affertion, he refts upon the following facts, briefly ex'tracted from his fcheme. The exarchate of Ravenna, he says, "revolted, at the inftigation of the "Pope, from the Greek emperor. Aiftulphus, "king of the Lombards, who thought of making "himself mafter of Italy, feized upon the exarchate. The Pope applied for help to Pipin, king of France, who came with an army into Italy, befieged the Lombards in Pavia, and "forced them to furrender the exarchate, and other "territories, which, at the folicitation of the Pope, "were given to St. Peter and his fucceffors. Pope

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Zachary had acknowledged Pipin, ufurper of the "crown of France, as lawful fovereign; and now "Pipin in his turn beftowed a principality, which ❝was another's property, upon Pope Stephen II. "the fucceffor of Zachary."

Such are the premises whence the bishop. draws the two-fold conclufion, that the Pope is the "Little Horn," and the exarchate of Ravenna one of the "three horns pluckt up by the roots" by the Pope. Is it not frange, that a man fo pious and fo learned fhould adduce fo many facts and circumstances to establish a particular theory, all of which prove the very reverfe 2: If Aiftulphus feized upon the exarchate, and deprived the Greek

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emperor of his dominions over it, it was he that pluckt it up by the roots," and not the Pope; and this conqueft was in the year 753, after which the Greek emperor. never had dominion over it. When Pipin came into Italy with an army in the year 755, and conquered Ravenna, it was no longer fubject to the exarch, butito Aiftulphus; and therefore, if it were for before, it could not, after it was conquered by the Lombards, be a horn," or an independent kingdom, according to the bishop's own definition, fupported by the explanation of the angel, who tells the prophet the ten horns are ten kings or kingdoms.or

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But how extremely imperfect will this scheme appear when it is confidered, that, from the bishop's own account, neither the exarch of Ravenna nor the Pope himself, at the time Ravenna was fubdued by Aiftulphus, poffeffed any one mark or quality of a horn. As to the exarchate, he tells us, it of right belonged to the Greek emperors, and was the capital of their dominions in Italy. It was then only a fubordinate principality, confequently was not an independent kingdom, or "horn." After the conqueft by the Lombards it became a province of Lombardy, and therefore could not be one of the three horns," when conquered by Pipin.

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As to the Pope, he was at this time only a fimple bishop, and fubject, in temporal and civil matters, to the fenate and people of Rome, who had revolted from the eaftern empire fome time before ; and therefore he had no mark of a "horn." And when Pipin took Ravenna from Aiftulphus, he, and not the Pope, became poffeffed, in right of conqueft, both of the civil dominion and ecclefiaftical power over it. The latter he gave

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